Want to know how a lawyer became a successful hotelier with 40 hotels & 9 Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore, London, Ireland, Shanghai & Sydney?!

Look no further than today’s STIMY guest: Loh Lik Peng, the founder of Unlisted Collection.

Lik Peng grew up expecting to be a doctor, like his parents.

But ended up practising as a commercial litigator for 3 years.

During that time, the world was hit with the Asian Financial Crisis and a rundown property called Hotel 1929 came onto the Singapore property market.

Hotel 1929 was located in Singapore’s red light district and Lik Peng saw potential in it, so he took a year off from law to develop the hotel with the full intention of going back to being a lawyer thereafter.

But life didn’t turn out that way.

He ended up opening his first restaurant at Hotel 1929, then another hotel and restaurant, and another and…

In fact, he bought so many properties in the area that his friend once remarked that the street should be renamed “Peng Road”! 🤣

Lik Peng has now become one of Singapore’s most established hoteliers (he struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time when people called him a hotelier!) despite starting out by taking projects “by the seat of his pants”.

And his Michelin-starred restaurants include:

⭐️: Burnt Ends, Marguerite, Nouri
⭐️⭐️: Cloudstreet, Da Terre
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Zen

So do you want to know how he did it?

Let’s go!

Highlights:
0:00 Flying by the seat of his pants
2:16 Family of gluttons
3:12 Boarding school was the best years of his life
4:09 Being a lousy doctor?!
5:20 The Asian Financial Crisis & important lessons learned
7:02 How Lik Peng's hospitality journey began
8:13 Singapore's red light district was his 'hood'?!
9:04 Not being daunted by the red light district
10:29 Mum thought he was insane
11:19 Ahead of the curve
12:31 SARS hit straight after launch of Hotel 1929
13:43 Crisis management in a hotel
14:40 Expanding to London
15:57 Bethnal Green?!
17:51 Toughest but most rewarding project
20:23 Do or die
20:45 The secret to getting things done
22:24 Risk management
24:00 When Lik Peng could call himself a 'hotelier'
25:31 The 'magic' behind what he does
26:37 What interests Lik Peng now
30:12 Old Clare, Sydney
32:39 Costs
33:57 Navigating the unsexy regulatory parts & Australia having the worst red tape (compared to London & China!)
35:02 What people should know people entering the Australian property market
36:02 Dr Stanley Quek: Family friend turned business partner
43:50 Handing off his restaurants to other people
45:20 His Michelin-starred chef & business partner, Rishi Nalindra
48:23 Building good infrastructure around a restaurant
49:43 "I never knew what P&L was. If I knew, I would've never said yes"
50:45 Giving equity to his chefs
51:36 Scoring a Michelin star & imposter syndrome
53:43 Sam Miller - a time comes when a chef is ready to strike out on his own
55:03 Getting through blind panic
56:02 Pulling the plug
57:06 Biggest failure - One Leicester Square London
59:30 Lik Peng's second passion - museums
1:02:54 Which pivot was the hardest and why?
1:05:11 Finding the second & third act of his career
1:06:25 What book you're reading now
1:07:06 How to find the right talent for Unlisted Collection
1:08:10 Any non-compete clause?
1:08:49 Things you'd attribute your success to

Special Thanks: Limpeh Studios (@hepmilcreatorsnetwork5697 ) for the studio in Singapore for this recording!

🎙️Show notes/transcript for this episode: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/140

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WHO AM I:
I'm Ling Yah, a Malaysian lawyer & host/producer of the So This Is My Why, where I interview inspiring people about how they found their why, and their blueprint for turning that why into a reality. I’ve interviewed a former US Congressman, retired 4 star generals, Olympians, Michelin-starred chefs, top entrepreneurs, VCs, Hollywood actresses, and more.

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⌨️ I’d love to hear from you! Just leave a comment below or email me at sothisismywhy(at)gmail.com